(Apart from, you know, potentially bringing on serious heart conditions.) In fact, if you’re looking for a reason for America’s ballooning girth, you’ve got to lay the blame on carbohydrates--in other words, bread and pasta, the very things that the government once advertised as the foundation of a healthy diet in the food pyramids we all grew up with. The funny thing is, though, that those low-carb diets, at this point, probably feel like another fad. The Atkins rage came and passed, after all. So it’s worth recounting the science behind how carbs make you fat, and it’s all laid out in this infographic created by Column Five for Massive Health, and based on Why We Get Fat by noted science writer Gary Taubes. The first panel illustrates some basic food science that I’ll bet you didn’t know in much detail. The biggest culprits seem to be carbs.
10 Stubborn Food Myths That Just Won't Die, Debunked by Science.

* Everyone needs salt to live.

We will die without it, but most of us get way too much, so cutting back on sodium isn't a bad idea. With a normal, modern diet, I believe we get much more sodium than is healthy. * I'm drinking lots of water because to prevent kidney stones ... er and to be hydrated. After you pass 1 stone, you'll drink more too. Is that also a food myth? * I try to never eat after 7pm.
Josh Le, University Of Alberta Student, Wears Same Pair Of Jeans For 15 Months. Good news: Turns out that wearing the same pair of jeans every day isn't hazardous to your health.

University of Alberta student Josh Le wore one pair of tight, raw denim jeans for 15 months starting in Sept. 2009. At the end of his trial, he and his professor, Rachel McQueen, found that the most bacteria accumulated in the crotch area of the jeans -- 8,500 to 10,000 bacterial units per square centimeter -- but overall, the pants were still safe to wear. McQueen said that the bacteria levels in the jeans were similar post-wash and pre-wash. Le isn't the first to attempt such a clothing challenge. Last year, Sheena Matheiken discovered an untapped font of sartorial inspiration through wearing the same dress every day for one year in a challenge she titled the Uniform Project.
Walking May Increase Brain Size and Boost Memory. Sitting for hours can shave years off life. How Many Hours of Sleep Do You Really Need? - Lifehacker. I took a class taught by the Penn PI cited in this article, Dr.

David Dinges, called "Human Chronobiology and Sleep". I also worked part-time for a company for which he was a consultant while I was a student. He's brilliant, truly one of the world's top authorities on sleep, with an extremely impressive, 112 page CV: [www.med.upenn.edu] One thing he emphasized in his class that really stood out for me is the inverse relationship between exposure to light (especially short-wave/blue light around 470nm) and melatonin production.
How Little Sleep Can You Get Away With?
Stem cell setback as mice reject own tissue - health - 13 May 2011. Editorial: "Keep stem cell options open" Hopes that people might one day be given transplants made from their own cells have been dashed by experiments trying out the same procedure in mice.

The mice rejected transplants of stem cells even though they had been generated from skin cells genetically identical to their own. The surprise finding casts doubt on claims that so-called induced pluripotent stem cells generated from a person's own tissue will ever be medically useful. Ever since Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto University in Japan made iPS cells by reprogramming skin cells in 2006, scientists have hoped that the technique could be used to generate transplantable tissue from an individual's own cells . However, the new experiments show that mice recognise many of the reprogrammed cells as foreign and reject them. "In the context of human therapy, we can't assume that these iPS cells will be immuno-tolerated," says Yang Xu at the University of California in San Diego, head of the team.
The Budweiser diet: How long can you survive on beer alone? - By Jeremy Singer-Vine. An Iowa man completed his Lent-long beer fast on Sunday, marking the occasion with a bacon smoothie.

During the 46-day feat, J. Wilson consumed only beer and water, emulating a centuries-old tradition once practiced by the Paulaner monks of Munich, Germany. How long could a man survive on beer and water? Not more than a few months, probably. That's when the worst effects of scurvy and protein deficiency would kick in. Scurvy would be an ironic cause of death for a beer-dieter, since the drink was long considered a prophylactic against the disease.
Eat These Foods to Boost Your Brain Power and Energy - Lifehacker.